Lawn Care, Inc. Organizational Change Proposal

Lawn Care, Inc., based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been providing the local community lawn care service since 1997. Lawn Care service currently offer standard lawn care services such as fertilizing, weed control, snow clearing, lawn cutting, weed eating, pruning of trees and bushes. The company primarily consists of field service techs with a small office staff which is responsible for answering phones, billing, accounting, sales, marketing and production of the news letter which is sent to existing customers.

With the limited staff and limited customer contact, management feels that drastic measures are needed to reach new customers, expand current customer services, increasing understanding of customer desires, increasing the customers' knowledge of lawn care, and continue the growth of Lawn Care, Inc. With this mission, the following changes in operations have been developed for review.

Proposed Organizational Changes

In order to gain a better understand of the needs and wants of the Tulsa Market, Lawn Care needs to make drastic changes in order to gain a perspective of what customer wants or needs. These changes need to be both cost efficient, customer oriented, and revenue focused. The first area of change is a reorganization of the back office staff to support the changes.

Accounting / Budget

The accounting department for Lawn Service Inc. will be broken into two divisions. The first will be on our web site; this section of the web page will let the customers see payments, make payments, and set up payments. Companies or individuals will be able to make payments on the web page using their credit card or customers could set up an automatic withdrawal from their checking accounts. The accounting department responsibilities will involve being interactive with the customer so there is not any confusion between how to pay, when the customer is going to make a payment, and what to charge each customer. The second division of the accounting department will deal with the company budget. Our initial budget will be $5,000.

The budget will include the development of a web site that will include many things and be very easy to navigate through. The company will put aside a portion for advertising. This will include anything from flyers, bill boards, and emails. Another part of our budget will be to buy machinery. The company will need to purchases mowers, weed whackers, lawn edger, trailer, and a truck. Finally, $1,000 will be set aside for daily needs like gas, parts and any replacements or repairs that are needed while the company builds revenue.

Sales

The new sales department will build a solid marketing strategy. The sales department will be responsible for direct contact with our new and existing customers. Maintaining loyalty of existing customers and building trustworthy relationships is a primary goal of the company. Currently, Lawn Service Inc. does not have the focus on sales. The company is working with existing customers, referrals and contacts generated through advertising. This focus must be changed in order to continue our growth. Advertising through the distribution of flyers, banners and an attractive informational website will enhance business.

To meet the required needs of lawn care services, the sales department will contribute by negotiating spread sheets of: price categories with variations accordingly, agreement contract terms and train customer service representatives. Customer representatives must be aware when speaking with clients the method in which to use persuasion skills to contract the sale. The sales department must continuously be aware of its performance, make accurate cost calculations and gather updated marketing information for upcoming promotions and business needs.

Customer Service

The customer service person will keep the lines of communication open between the company, its employees